Dozens of people made comments during a public meeting held in South Haven. During the first part of the thee-hour meeting, Palisades managers talked about how they are working to improve the safety culture at the plant.

Wayne Adams wasn’t impressed with the presentation.

"I just thought it was a smokescreen," said Adams. "Safety culture, they act like they are a brand new company that didn't have a safety policy."

Suzie Fitzgibbon, mayor pro tem of South Haven, called the actions being taken by Entergy Corp., owners of the plant, a “good step."

“I trust you are providing safety evaluation to this plant,” she told the NRC representatives at the meeting. “This plant has been a good neighbor to South Haven through the years.”

Kevin Kamps, of Beyond Nuclear, a longtime critic of Palisades and its safety record, said the plant should be shut down because of the risks he says it poses to the community.

“We will do our best to keep our eyes on you,” Kamps said told NRC officials. “We feel we have been burned countless times by the NRC.”

Chuck Casto, the Midwest region administrator for the NRC, said his office has recently done more to improve transparency, including publishing notes from phone calls between Entergy and federal regulators.

About 80 people attended the meeting held Wednesday night at the Beech Haven Event Center in South Haven, the latest in a number of public meetings regarding Palisades held over the last year.

Thursday's meeting was not required, but Castro said is was important, especially for plants since Palisades' rating with the NRC has been downgraded by regulators.

“We need to go above and beyond the minimum in terms of transparency,” Casto said.